The Manhattan U.S. Attorney has announced charges against six individuals including a Sri Lankan investor, over an international high-yield investment fraud scheme.

Scheme participants are accused of impersonated Federal Reserve Officials to swindle over $50 Million from investors in the United States and foreign countries, the US Department of Justice said.

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging the six defendants with conspiracy, wire fraud, impersonation of Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“New York Fed”) officials, money laundering, and other crimes in connection with a fraudulent high-yield investment scheme that resulted in the theft of over $50 million from investors in the United States and around the world. 

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment, from at least June 2013 through August 2016, Rienzi Edwards, Michael Jacobs, Ruby Handler-Jacobs, F.K. Ho, Lawrence Lester, and Rachel Gendreau orchestrated and executed a fraudulent high-yield investment program known as the “Cities Upliftment Program,” or CUP, which the defendants falsely told investors was operated by the New York Fed.  

The press release stated that the scheme was principally designed and operated by Edwards, with the assistance of Jacobs and Handler-Jacobs, and was marketed to investors around the world through brokers, including Ho, Lester, and Gendreau.

Edwards, 55, of Sri Lanka, Jacobs, 64, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Handler-Jacobs, 64, of Albuquerque, New Mexico are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of conducting monetary transactions in unlawful funds, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to impersonate employees of the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five years; one count of impersonating employees of the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of three years; and aggravated identity theft, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. 

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said:  “Edwards and his co-defendants allegedly concocted and carried out an audacious scam, promising investors exponential returns on investments they claimed were overseen by the New York Federal Reserve and backed by the U.S. government.  In reality, it was all a lie; there was no government-backed program and no plan to invest, only an alleged plan to steal the investors’ money.”